1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data base technology, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for generating data useful in indexing and searching.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of systems exist for indexing and searching data. One system previously offered for use by Dow Jones & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., was known as the Callable Personal Librarian (“CPL”). Utilizing software from a company previously known as Personal Library Software (“PLS”), the system integrated indexing, searching, and rules-based definition of tokenization patterns into a single coded system. The definitions were part of the code of the CPL system and not accessible or changeable outside of the CPL code. The CPL system also did not normalize data. The current PLS software is now available as shareware from America Online, Inc., a division of AOL Time Warner Inc. of New York, N.Y., through their Web site at http://www.pls.com/.
Another system previously offered for use by Reuters Group PLC of London, England was based on standard white-space-based tokenization and did not provide for normalization of data.